BJP ally joins onion farmers in protest against export duty, govt tries damage control

DyCM Devendra Fadnavis spoke to union home minister Amit Shah and union commerce minister Piyush Goyal about the farmers unrest following imposition of 40 per cent duty on onion export.

To provide relief to farmers and address their concerns government has taken the decision to procure onions from farmers for which procurement centre’s will be opened in Nashik and Ahmednagar.

The government will procure two lakh metric tonne onions from state farmers at the rate Rs 2410 per quintal.

Chhagan Bhujbal, Maharashtra Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, told The Indian Express that he would meet Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to discuss a way out. One of the eight MLAs who left with Ajit Pawar to join the Shinde-led government, Bhujbal is an MLA from Yeola constituency in Nashik district, which is a major onion-growing zone.

On Monday, wholesale markets in Nashik were deserted as traders and commission agents started an indefinite strike to protest against the export duty decision. Various farm organisations also took to the streets to register their opposition, with farmers angry that the Centre’s decision came just when onion prices had corrected after months of slump.

Senior NAFED officials said 16 centres have been instructed to start farm gate level procurement. Earlier in the year too, NAFED had procured around 2 lakh tonnes of onion to stabilize its price.

Bharati Pawar, the Union Minister of State who is also from Nashik, was quoted by PTI as asking farmers not to be worried and reassuring them about NAFED commencing procurement.

Among those who have come down on the export duty decision is BJP ally Rayat Kranti Sanghatana, a farm outfit led by former minister Sadabhau Khot. The Nashik head of the Sanghatana, Deepak Pagar, has threatened to start a tractor rally to Mumbai if the government does not withdraw the decision in the next two days. “This decision is wrong,” he said.

Congress Maharashtra chief Nana Patole called the Centre’s decision “anti-farmer”, and said the Congress “stands with the farmers”.

Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, a farm union led by former MP Raju Shetti, has approached NCP chief Sharad Pawar on the issue. Pawar promised the Sanghatana to raise the matter in the upcoming meeting of INDIA bloc in Mumbai on September 1.

Earlier, in March this year, onion farmers had held a 200-km march from Nashik to Mumbai following a sharp slump in prices from Rs 1,100 per quintal to Rs 450, owing to a glut in production. This was compounded in some parts of the state by unseasonal rain and hailstorm, destroying the standing crop. In some villages, farmers had thrown their onion stocks into the fire as part of Holika. Finally, the government had announced an ex-gratia subsidy of Rs 300 per quintal, raising it later to Rs 350.

The state government had also got NAFED to procure onions to curtail the price fall.

Maharashtra accounts for up to 40% of the country’s onion production. Asia’s biggest onion market is Lasalgaon in Nashik district. At around 40 lakh, onion farmers make a sizeable vote bank in the state.

The Centre’s decision to impose the export duty on onions to ensure adequate stocks of the vegetable at home follows the steep rise in prices of tomatoes. This had given the Opposition fresh ammunition against the Modi government over inflation across essential commodities.